In the Family Way

If this story is true (the source might be a bit iffy) it demonstrates yet again that Silicon Valley is really away with the fairies.

Google was forced to backtrack on its use of the word ‘family’ after staff at its California headquarters kicked off because the term was used in the context of having children, it has been revealed.

The tech giant experienced a backlash from its own employees in March 2017 after a presentation about a product aimed at young people seemed to replace the term with the word ‘family’, leaving out various groups.

Far-right publication, the Daily Caller News claimed on Wednesday to have viewed internal communications from an insider in Mountain View where one employee stormed out of a meeting and called the company’s poor choice of wording ‘offensive, inappropriate, homophobic, and wrong’.

Now I may be old-fashioned, but my response would be to discipline that member of staff for their appalling behaviour during work hours, not to appease their mental instability. However, this is Silicon Valley where nutjobs rule and the infantilisation of the people progresses at a pace rather more quickly than out here and it’s going too fast out here. But, despite the source, some of what they say rings true.

According to the website, approximately 100 people in Silicon Valley showed they agreed with the person’s views by up-voting a statement they posted to the company’s board.

‘This is a diminishing and disrespectful way to speak. If you mean ‘children’, say ‘children’; we have a perfectly good word for it. ‘Family friendly’ used as a synonym for ‘kid friendly’ means, to me, ‘you and yours don’t count as a family unless you have children‘,’ the employee is said to have written. ‘And while kids may often be less aware of it, there are kids without families too, you know’.

I come across this kind of idiocy when trying to conduct conversations. People jump on a turn of phrase and put their own interpretation onto it. “Family friendly” does not mean “you and yours don’t count”. It simply means family friendly – whatever the composition of that family. Reasonable, rational people do not need this explained to them. But, as I said, people will jump on a phrase and put their own spin on it and then construct a strawman, which is precisely what we see here. It’s a classic example of the genre and exposes the speaker for a cretin.

Google’s employee added that it conjures up reminders of organizations that use the word ‘family’ to suggest anyone who isn’t heterosexual may not be included.

Again, a strawman. Stating that something is family friendly does not equate to gayer unfriendly. That is pure invention on the part of the grievance-monger concerned. This is someone who is actively seeking to be offended so that they have something to complain about. Google’s response should have been robust – telling them to fuck off and stick their manufactured offence where the sun don’t shine. But, then, they appease this kind of bullying behaviour.

‘The use of ‘family’ as a synonym for ‘with children’ has a long-standing association with deeply homophobic organizations,’ the person continued. ‘This does not mean we should not use the word ‘family’ to refer to families, but it mean we must doggedly insist that family does not imply children.

Oh, please! You’re killing me here. Just fuck off with this bullshit. Progressive identity politics word salad.

Even the sense, ‘suitable for the whole family’, which you might think is unobjectionable, is totally wrong too.

It is unobjectionable in a sane, rational world where people don’t put their own spin on the words that other people use. It is not totally wrong. It is perfectly fine.

It only works if we have advance shared conception of what ‘the whole family’ is, and that is almost always used to mean a household with two adults, of opposite sex, in a romantic/sexual relationship, with two or more of their own children.’

And thus we rewrite the dictionary, because so what if that is what people understand by the word “family”? Because that is the dictionary definition. And it is the dictionary definition that these people object to. The use of the word does not automatically exclude others who do not fit this description when it is used to describe events or venues. Nor is its use indicative of a made-up mental illness.

An unmarried person who did not have children at the time admitted it ‘bothers me too’, and one woman with a boyfriend and no offspring stated: ‘It smacks of the ‘family values’ agenda by the right wing which is absolutely homophobic by its very definition.’

Ah, yes, “right wing” so bad. White man bad, Orange man bad, straight men and women bad.

The uproar caused Google vice president Pavni Diwanji to chime in on the thread with a vow to change the way they operate.

Idiot. Paying the Danegeld does not make the Dane go away. And who is running this business anyway?

When George Orwell wrote 1984, he intended it to be a dark warning. These people are using it as a handbook.

5 Comments

  1. I find the term ‘far-right’ publication offensive, I doubt it is ‘Storm Trooper Weekly’. They are using it as a synonym for ‘people we don’t agree with’.

  2. The term “family friendly” means the whole family can enjoy.Child friendly doesn’t necessarily. There are specific terms that are still used for good reason…

  3. Daily Mail: “Far-right publication, the Daily Caller”

    Insults like that mean biased and stop reading, also confirm Daily Caller probably correct.

    Anything at El Reg comments? Not looked at it much since Lewis & Tim fired & it went PC SJW

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